Story+2008-04-28+Greensboro,+NC

“Hello, Greensboro (crowd cheers) this is something in the memory of Dan…”
 * 28.04.08 Greensboro, NC, before the video montage of Dan**

“Is there anybody alive out there? (crowd cheers)…”
 * 28.04.08 Greensboro, NC, intro to “Radio Nowhere”**

“Good evening! (crowd cheers)…good evening, Greensboro (crowd cheers)…good evening…alright, here´s to the end of eight years of bad, bad magic…”
 * 28.04.08 Greensboro, NC, intro to “Magic”**

“Little Steven on the guitar! (crowd cheers)…I wanna thank some friends that were outside getting a nice little collection for Danny´s fund (cheers from some very loud ladies next to the taper) we appreciate that, Danny has a melanoma fund (?) melanoma cancer (crowd cheers) Danny, with the exception of Steve who I met at, we were sixteen, at the Eatontown, New Jersey Hullabaloo Club (crowd cheers) you remember that one? (chuckles) I met Danny when, uh, we were eighteen in a place in Asbury Park, in a place called the Upstage (crowd cheers) he was from Flemington, Flemington, New Jersey, a fabulous town (?)(crowd cheers) and, uh, he really actually asked me to join his band with him and “Mad Dog” Lopez…and so he´s, I played with, I played with Danny for 40 years, I guess, and he survived, he had nine lives and he used up about five of mine so…(chuckles) Danny was always, like, uh, he was always into something, you know, and, uh, let me see, I told a short story last night, I´ll tell another one tonight…Danny had, uh, Danny had a tendency to lift things, you know, particularly when he was younger because he was, uh, he was kind of a, a gadget-freak, he was always looking to soup up his car or soup up his organ or something, his stereo set, and so usually it was, usually in hand but then I came down to a motel corridor one day and I found Danny with a screwdriver taking out the up-down buttons out of the elevator (laughter from the crowd)(?) he says, you know, “A towel´s not good enough for me” (laughter from the crowd) he needs the buttons from the elevator, I said “Danny, what, what, you know, what do you need the buttons for?” he said “Oh, the color´s perfect, I´m gonna put it on my organ and when I hit the last key, it´s gonna light” so (laughter from the crowd) we needed to, we needed to innovate in those days, we had to, we were living off the fat of the land, we needed to innovate and so (chuckles) another night we were playing at this club and I noticed at the end of the night that the jukebox´s kind of shoved at an angle and I just catch a glimpse of Danny with a huge speaker under his arm slipping out the side-door (laughter from the crowd) and so of course I go back, I peek inside the jukebox – empty…empty…but, uh, anyway, this one, I´m gonna send this one out to our pal, “It´s hard to be a saint in the city”…”
 * 28.04.08 Greensboro, NC, intro to “It´s Hard to Be a Saint in the City” (following “Gypsy Biker”)**

“Greensboro! (crowd cheers) how we doing? (crowd cheers) ah, let´s see who´s here tonight, alright…hello…hello, man (chuckles) (?)…give me that, I´ll save it for later (chuckles)…I´m not gonna tell nobody right now…ah, can´t do that one, no (chuckles) it´s too long (chuckles)(?) I don´t play that one either (chuckles) oh, alright, how are you? (crowd cheers)(?)…this is a song called ´Livin´ in the Future´…but it´s about what´s happening now…how along with all the things that we love about the place we come from and our home and all the things we value and that mean so much to us…we´ve had to add to the American picture over the past eight years things like rendition…illegal wiretapping, the rolling-back of civil liberties…no Habeas Corpus, these are all things that are fundamentally American (crowd cheers) because of the color of your skin or your circumstance, you may feel like it don´t have a big impact on your life but they´re all really an affront to the Constitution, which means they´re an attack on our very selves and who we are when say that we are the Americans (crowd cheers) so the mighty E Street Band is here tonight to do something about it (crowd cheers) that´s right…we´re gonna sing about it…that´s right…that´s what we´re gonna do (chuckles) that´ll scare, if that don´t scare ´em, we´re gonna sing about it again! (crowd cheers) help me out, Max, help me tell the story…”
 * 28.04.08 Greensboro, NC, intro to “Livin´ in the Future”**

“Let´s see if we can remember this one…a debut on this tour…(?)…”
 * 28.04.08 Greensboro, NC, intro to “Mary´s Place”**

“Thank you! (crowd cheers) thank you, Greensboro! (crowd cheers) thank you so much, we got a couple of friends in the house tonight, folks from Project Greenleaf…and the Greensboro Urban Ministry, Project Greenleaf works on community projects, connecting public to local farmers and fishermen…Greensboro Urban Ministry provides crisis intervention and emergency services, they help families break the cycle of poverty, hunger, addiction and homelessness, these are good folks out on the frontline doing God´s work here in Greensboro, Project Greenleaf and the Greensboro Urban Ministry (?)…”
 * 28.04.08 Greensboro, NC, intro to “Backstreets”**

“Are you ready to ramrod? (crowd cheers) Steve… (…) Shake that thing, girls…hey, Steve…(Steve: “Yeah?”) I think it´s quitting time, baby…oh, it´s quitting time (Steve: “Yeah, I think so”) is it, uh, sleepy-time?...is it, uh, sexy-time? (crowd cheers)…then, Steve, what I wanna know is…what time is it, Brother? (crowd cheers)(Steve: “It´s Boss-time!”)…oh, come on, Steve, we´re gonna go…”
 * 28.04.08 Greensboro, NC, intro to “Ramrod”**

“Greensboro, thanks for coming out to the show tonight (crowd cheers) remember Project Greenleaf and the Greensboro Urban Ministry… (…) Garry W. Tallent (crowd cheers) Little Steven Van Zandt (crowd cheers) Sister Soozie Tyrell (crowd cheers) the unstoppable Mighty Max Weinberg (crowd cheers) Professor Roy Bittan (crowd cheers) from the Sessions Band, Charlie Giordano (crowd cheers) the incredible Nils Lofgren (crowd cheers) and the biggest man you´ve ever seen: Clarence “Big Man” Clemons (crowd cheers) Greensboro! (crowd cheers) Greensboro! (crowd cheers) Greensboro! (crowd cheers) Greensboro! (crowd cheers) Greensboro! (crowd cheers) Greensboro! (crowd cheers) you´ve just seen the heart-stopping, pants-dropping, hard-rocking, earth-shocking, booty-shaking, love-making, Viagra-taking, history-making, legendary (crowd: “E Street Band”)…”
 * 28.04.08 Greensboro, NC, intro to “American Land”**

//Compiled by : Johanna Pirttijärvi//